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Mass. Gov. Maura Healey stopped publishing regular accounting of state-run shelter spending

Chris Van Buskirk, Boston Herald on

Published in News & Features

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s administration no longer publishes a public, regular accounting of how much the state is spending in the current fiscal year on the emergency shelter system housing homeless families and pregnant women because a state law mandating the data expired.

In seven reports released since fiscal year 2026 started July 1, Healey officials quietly stopped, including key sections that documented in real time how much taxpayers had spent on shelter costs, programs designed to move families out of shelter and municipal supports.

In place of the data, the Healey administration only notes that Beacon Hill Democrats approved $276 million in this year’s state budget for the shelter system, the average amount spent on families in shelter each week, and the total amount of cash spent from a reserve fund.

Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican who advocated for the original legislative language behind the reports, said they have provided lawmakers and the public the ability to ask tough questions about decisions made by the Healey administration.

“I think it would be a disservice to every single person in the Commonwealth for them just to go poof,” he said. “I think a real leader looks at this situation and says, ‘Yep, it’s been really difficult. There’s been a lot of challenges with it. And despite the fact that we might not be required by law to do this anymore, the spirit of the law is about transparency and accountability, and I’m going to continue to do it.’”

The biweekly reports were created through a supplemental spending bill signed by Healey in December 2023 after Beacon Hill Democrats and Republicans battled over one of the first attempts to cough up more cash to pay for shelter services amid an influx of migrants.

For more than a year and a half, the documents have shed light on how much money state officials were shuttling towards a crisis that consumed Healey’s first year’s in office and pushed lawmakers to grapple with what they consistently admitted was unsustainable spending.

The initial law that called for the reports only required the Healey administration to provide details on the total amount expended on shelters, supplemental school district costs, municipal supports, any “other” spending, and projected deficiencies through the end of fiscal year 2025.

In a note included in the Sept. 22 report, Healey’s top budget and housing officials said that “we have completed reporting requirements established by that line item.”

“Reporting on activities that are no longer ongoing, such as hotel shelter or spending from past fiscal years, may be found in previous bi-weekly reports,” the administration said in the reports.

None of the reports published since July 1 have included real-time or detailed fiscal year 2026 spending data, and the documents since the Sept. 22 release no longer feature information about fiscal year 2025.

A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities confirmed that the administration is no longer required to report fiscal-year-to-date spending.

The fiscal data in the documents were often a place where the public, lawmakers, and other elected officials could glean information about a surge in spending that was often marked by quick decision-making and controversial political debates.

Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Director Paul Craney said the data provided a starting point to figure out where taxpayer dollars were being directed.

 

“It’s never really (been) the full picture, because some of these expenses are probably pretty fungible, but it brings a level of accountability,” Craney told the Herald.

In a report released Monday, state officials said the average weekly cost for families in the emergency assistance shelter program is $1,182 and that officials have spent $133,000 this fiscal year from a reserve fund filled with pandemic-era dollars on shelter-related needs

Fattman said if the Healey administration will not voluntarily include real-time spending data, then the Legislature should amend state law to require them to do so.

“It took a bipartisan effort to get these reports to be produced, to understand the costs per family per week. Why wouldn’t you continue that? There’s so little bipartisanship in the world these days,” he said. “It should be continued well beyond fiscal year 2026 to help us understand the trends and the numbers because we’re going to have fiscal challenges for years to come.”

Craney agreed.

“The Legislature should definitely reinstate this disclosure because it is helpful for the public to know how much they’re spending on a weekly basis. It actually makes it a little bit more tangible for the average person,” he said.

Spokespeople for Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport and Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of the North End, the chief budget writers in each chamber to whom the reports are addressed, declined to comment when asked if they noticed that Healey stopped publishing real-time spending data.

The lack of information about fiscal year 2026 spending comes as the Healey administration spent $978.2 million in fiscal year 2025 on the emergency assistance program and related services, according to the last shelter report to include data from the 12-month cycle.

The shelter tab represents the second full fiscal year that Massachusetts taxpayers have shelled out larger-than-normal sums to house homeless families after a surge of migrant arrivals pushed the emergency assistance shelter system to a bursting point. The administration spent $894 million in fiscal year 2024.

There were 2,367 families in emergency shelters as of Oct. 9, a dramatically lower count than the highs seen in 2024, according to state data.

A spokesperson for Healey’s housing agency said the administration inherited a shelter system in 2023 that “was not equipped to handle the surge in demand Massachusetts experienced these past few years.”

“Gov. Healey imposed reforms, such as a capacity limit, length of stay limit, residency requirements, and background checks, that have successfully reduced caseloads and costs. We expect fiscal year 2026 costs to be hundreds of millions of dollars less than fiscal year 2025,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Herald.

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